Portrait & Landscape: Summer Vacation

This painting is a work in progress that I started tonight. It is Acrylic on Canvas. This is a landscape of a photo that I took while on a vacation in Pismo Beach, CA about a year ago. Pismo is an interesting town but I wish I had asked the bartender earlier in the night where the real party spots were at. I ended up being the only person under 55 within ten miles. Had I driven up the way to San Luis Obispo, a College Town, I would have had a better time. For some reason I didn't even realize I had friends there attending Cal Poly. Pismo Beach does work well as a quiet, relaxing, and beautiful beach though!




This is a new piece that I finished last week before the art show at Living Dead Tattoo. It is also Acrylic on Canvas. It was one of my eye catchers which made me proud because it is my most recent finished work, so this means I am getting better! This is a small portrait of Ghandi that was inspired by the quote below the portrait "Be the Change." I kind of had an itch to use those colors because of my memories of the original Batman Film by Tim Burton where Jack Nicholson (the joker) spreads neon green paint all over classic pieces of art in the Gotham museum. (This is the result of taking little kids to rated R movies)

"Last Friday" 6/25/10

These are pictures of the first, "Last Friday," art festival at Living Dead Tattoo in Las Vegas. This was the first of many to come. If everything goes well this will be an every month type of deal like "First Friday." Fellow artists David Thomas http://dmtspeck.blogspot.com and Ryan Dwyer were also on display. David and I were able to secure a spot next to each other. I did not sell any paintings or prints but David was able to sell two. Although I was not very prosperous I now have a good sense of pricing, a knowledge of what kind of art people are interested in, and a better understanding of how presentation can go a long way. Hopefully with some better promoting and a larger turn out I will be able to let loose some of my back stock. Overall, I had a great time meeting fellow artists and craftsman, and enjoyed a nice day in the sun drinking Tecate.

Sunset Park Excursion with the Hot Sauce Gang

Hello to anyone who reads this. Today I awoke to a missed call from Mr. David Thomas himself. No, not the founder of Wendy's, this David Thomas http://dmtspeck.blogspot.com and opportunity awaited. Not only was he able to give me a connection in getting a gallery spot in a parking lot party called "Last Friday" but he also gave me the info on a club meeting taking place today. These above images are my resulting paintings from the Sunset Park trip. It ended up being Rick Quemado, Nina Paulos, Brandon Lin, David Thomas, and myself. We all came out with some great pieces. These are acrylic on sketchbook paper (thus the wet crinkly look.)We all brought some food and drinks and had a really good time talking and painting. It was a beautiful day in Las Vegas, NV, and I couldn't think of a better way to spend the afternoon. Next time we BBQ!

The party is going to be at Living Dead Tattoo on Rainbow & Russel this Friday, June 25th, from 4'oclock until 10'oclock. You can find paintings and maybe some prints of mine in slot 17 ranging from $20-?. If you are not sure where it is, think next to Durango High School or Spring Valley Hospital. This is my first gallery spot in a long time so I am pretty excited to get back to some work!

Experimenting; Fur, Ocean Shader, & Architectural Rendering

I have been recently inspired by an architect that has recently completed a project in Las Vegas (the Cleveland Brain Institute) named Frank Gehry. .

He was recently featured in the HBO series "Masterclass." It was very cool figuring out his process. Especially because Frank Gehry has become one of the most influential architects of our time.



Tonight I found myself with some free time and I decided to play around with some architectural visualization. I am pretty pleased with my resulting design. I did a similar project a couple of years ago all in toon shading, but this time around I am trying to experiment with the presentation processes and designs that would be appealing to architectural firms & the green movement. A fellow student, Mina P, recently showed me some grass she had made using fur so I decided to mess around with it and this is my result thus far. The Monorail is from the previous project I mentioned and has become a valuable generic asset for scenes like this.





My last little touch I added was the ocean & sky shader I decided to mess around with. I think it looks pretty slick and is a quick easy way to express water. This can be found in the paint effects or "visor" menu in Maya. Simply right click on it and choose the only option (import .ma to scene.) There are about six different styles that simulate various weather conditions through this simple method of importing a sky and ocean shader directly into the scene.

San Diego Bay Continued

Today is going to be my last day in Rapid Visualization and perhaps my last "hand's on" art class I will be attending at The Art Institute of Las Vegas before graduation. I really wanted to push myself for the final and this is what has come of my stress and strain. Oh, there's also some blood, sweat, and tears in it too... This is the second painting in a sequence of work based on some really nice vacation pictures I took while in San Diego. I'm still putting some finishing touches on it; however, some paintings get to a point where addition becomes subtraction and additional work in the same session can become counter productive. I find when I am not yet satisfied with my work but having trouble figuring out what is next I will take a walk, read a book, go to a concert, or in today's case go shooting. Some times a little inspiration can go a far way.

Hunt for the Red October

This is the second piece in a sequence of paintings I have been developing for Kevin Anderson's Rapid Visualization class. I decided to post some progress shots so you can get an idea of my work flow. I will be sure to post more when its finished! Hopefully tomorrow night or Tuesday. I really want to nail this because it may be my last assignment for a class at AILV before I graduate. "Push it to the Limit" I have never had a piece in the galleries of the hallways in the building so I am hoping to make this that piece.

Kaplan Demo Reel Spring 2010

Kaplan_Demo_Spring_2010 from Jonathan Kaplan on Vimeo.

Check it out. My Demo Reel submission for Portfolio Prep Spring 2010. Give me some critiques!

Back to the Basics

Landscape painting has been a long time passion of mine. I recently had the opportunity to revisit this part of my life in Kevin Anderson's Rapid Visualization class at The Art Institute of Las Vegas. I normally result to digital work using Coral X to save time as a result of pursuing an animation degree but this was a "flex your muscle" project meant to show off the traditional skills we have been building over the past seven weeks; so, I decided to push myself to be a better artist and practice my brush skills. The reference was from a photo I took while on vacation in San Diego. The Harbor served as a perfect contrast for where new meets old. I am planning on doing another location for the class final, possibly a Lake Tahoe piece.